Basheer

Ahmedabad, Aug. 19: City police today claimed that Mufti Abu Basheer had confessed to plotting the Ahmedabad blasts along with missing techie Taufiq Bilal.

However, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Abhay Chudasma, who made the claim before the media, acknowledged that the alleged confession was not admissible in court.

Basheer, accused of heading terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, was picked up from his home in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and is being grilled by Ahmedabad police who have his custody for 14 days.

The young man in his 20s, a teacher at a Hyderabad madarsa since March 2007, told his interrogators he and Taufiq had spent two months planning the blasts in a rented house in Ahmedabad’s Vatva locality, the DCP said.

Basheer’s “confession” matches the version of events the police gave out on Saturday while announcing they had solved the July 26 explosions that killed 57 people. The salient points are:

• Basheer came in touch with Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) leader Safdar Nagori in Hyderabad, who originally planned the blasts. After Nagori’s arrest in Madhya Pradesh last March, Basheer took charge of Simi’s national network.

• The explosives — ammonium nitrate and urea dipped in petrol — were bought in Madhya Pradesh.

• Taufiq, a software and explosives specialist whose real name is Abdul Subhan Qureshi, assembled the bombs in Ahmedabad and Vadodara between July 20 and 25. The bombs were planted using stolen bicycles and cars.

DCP Chudasma said some among the other nine arrested accused had revealed that the militants were trained not just in the Ernakulam forests (Kerala) and Pavagadh (Gujarat), but also in Dharwad (Karnataka) and Khandwa (Madhya Pradesh).

Crime branch sources alleged Basheer used to indoctrinate young rebels and had raised money to get Nagori out of jail.

Senior lawyers said that since the alleged confession was not admissible in court, the police must produce material and corroborative evidence. The police today raided the Vadodara home of Imran Sheikh, one of those arrested, where Taufiq allegedly made the bombs.

Basheer’s lawyer Hashim Qureshi said his client had told the magistrate’s court he was innocent; so if he has indeed admitted guilt, he must have been tortured.